Turn-Taking in Music Therapy with Children with Communication Disorders

Abstract

In a well-functioning dialogue, the nonverbal and often implicit visual and auditory cues ensure good continuation without interruptions or overlapping speak. In mutual interplay, both partners participate in turn-organisation, and therefore an analysis of cues indicating turn-taking and turn-yielding can provide information about the participants' social skills, whether or not the dialogue is verbal.

This article presents relevant concepts from conversation analysis literature in order to analyse music therapy interplay aimed at promoting preverbal and social skills. As the character of the turn-organisation is dependent on the developmental age of the participants, the described cues are compared to research in early mother–child interplay, as well as studies of turn-organisation in dialogues with disabled children.

The theoretical part of the article is illustrated by a turn-analysis of case material from music therapy with a 2½-year-old boy with communication disorders. The analysis was a part of the author's doctoral research and focuses on the boy's participation in turn-organisation as well as the therapist's use of turn-yielding and turn-overlapping.

The article concludes with a discussion of the applied theoretical concepts in relation to music therapy practice. It will be suggested that the turn-yielding cues can be compared to response-evoking techniques, while the management of simultaneousness (overlaps) naturally is very different in verbal than in musical dialogues.